Priest 1-20 Leveling Guide

This guide will help you play a Priest in World of Warcraft from levels 1-20, including an overview, abilities, and specialization choices. To learn about other classes, please visit our Class Information Hub. If you want to read more detailed information about each specialization, check out our Discipline, Holy, and Shadow guides.

In Legion, players can participate in a Class Trial before purchasing a boost. Below is the video for the Priest Class Trial, more videos in our guide:

Priest: Discipline - , , , , ,

Priest

These masters of the healing arts keep their companions fighting far beyond their normal capacities with an array of restorative powers and blessings. The divine forces at the priest’s command can also be turned against foes, smiting them with holy fury. As light cannot exist without darkness, and darkness without light, some priests tap into shadow to better understand their own abilities, as well as the abilities of those who threaten them.

Priests use mana as a resource. However if you are a Shadow Priest you have a secondary resource named Insanity.

Priests can be exceptional healers and range damage dealers and have particularly useful spells such as and

Choosing A Specialization

No matter which class you start off as, you will be in a damage role. At level 10, you can choose to spec into other roles, specifically tank or healing. You can also choose a different damage playstyle--for example, one that deals damage at range, vs melee.

Priests are exceptional cloth wearing healers or can be masters of shadow spells in dealing ranged damage. Learn more about each specialization option in our Healing and Ranged DPS overviews.

Abilities

When you first start off, you will only have the ability . You will also have another ability on your action bar that is your racial ability depending on which race you pick, this will change. We will go into that later. This is a ranged spell that has a cast time. If you are casting you cannot move otherwise it will interrupt the cast and your ability will not go off. Unless the ability is an Instant or specifies that it can be casted while moving, this is the general rule for all spell casts. At higher levels, this ability will have additional effects for Discipline and Holy priests.

At Level 3 you will learn . This is an instant and a debuff. This means you cast it once and it will do " damage over time" or "dot" for short. You don't need to cast this again on the same target for another 18 secs or until it falls off or is removed. At level 8 you will learn this is a buff onto yourself. You will cast a shield on yourself and it will absorb damage. So for example, if you target an enemy, start by using this will cause it to run to you, you should be able to get 1 cast of and then when the enemy gets to you to harm you, then you cast and then continue to cast until your enemy dies. You can also use on friendly allies as well.

You will also get some more interesting utility spells. Level 14 you will learn this will bring a dead ally back to life, but you need to be out of combat. you will get at level 5 which creates a barrier to protect friendly players at a target location.

Priests fit the fantasy of being bringers of either light or shadow. The light calms the mind and heals the soul. While Shadow priests cause harm and brings insanity to those who cross their paths.

At Level 10, you can change your specialization:

Discipline: A ranged healing/damage spec. You heal your allies while dealing damage. With the mechanic, when you deal damage, all targets affected by Atonement are healed. Atonement is applied via casting , , , and . Some damage-dealing abilities Discipline Priests have include , and . Discipline Priests can also mass resurrect a group via .

Holy: A ranged healing spec. Keep yourself at a safe distance while aiding your allies with healing. Basic heals include , , and , as well as iconic cooldowns like and . Holy Priests also have powerful "Holy Word" spells like , whose cooldowns can be reduced via . Holy Priests can also mass resurrect a group via .

Shadow: A ranged damage dealing spec that takes on the purple-tinted Shadowform. Use abilities to generate Insanity like , , and . When you hit 100 Insanity, you can activate via . This special form only lasts a short amount of time and it lets you cast , deal 20% more damage for the duration, and grant additional haste for a minute. For multiple targets use , and while Shadow Priests do not have many heals, they do have .

At Level 15, you have your choice for a first talent: Discipline: , , or .Holy: , , or .Shadow: , , or .

Players continue to unlock abilities every few levels, with major abilities every 10 or 20 levels: